I'm not that smart, but for a lot of things I put in a bit of effort and care, seemingly more than average. So in a programming context if I have to add some fe

I'm not that smart, but for a lot of things I put in a bit of effort and care, seemingly more than average. So in a programming context if I have to add some feature, for example, I won't just do the first thing that works, but try to think ahead on the long term a bit, think about good API design, maybe UX, write decent docs, etc. Plus I tend to be fairly pro-active in many things. It always surprises me when people don't do that kind of stuff; which happens surprisingly often IMO. People add stuff with the shittiest of APIs, without thinking more than a week ahead, or write documentation that barely even qualifies as English (from native or very proficient speakers). As a result, people have often considered me "very smart". But I'm not. I'm not dumb either, but certainly not some sort of programming whizkid. Point being: attitude counts for quite a bit. I think everyone knows a few people who are not necessarily "dumb" in the sense that their brains aren't computing well enough, but are nonetheless "dumb" because of their attitude towards certain things. If you never take an interest in anything, or just always go for the simple explanations and solutions you will forever stay dumb, no matter how smart you are. Innate ability and education also counts. I have no idea how much share each have, although lack of innate ability can certainly be a ceiling to what you can achieve, even with the best attitude. But as the post says: for most things that doesn't actually matter all that much.